A rash of forest fires in the Mountain Pine Ridge Area has forced several high end resorts to evacuate their guests.

As this satellite imagery shows, there were as many as forty-four forest fires visible in the last 36 hours.

The good news is that there was finally a massive downpour in the area late this morning – as much as an inch of rain came down, dousing many of the fires.

No property was damaged but it did get scary for the workers and guests as Blancaneux yesterday when small patches of fires advanced up to their property boundary.

The resort was forced to evacuate its guests in the afternoon and the workers left last night through a landscape inflamed by multiple fires. Reports are that the 5 Sisters Lodge also had to be evacuated.

But according to one Blancaneux staffer we spoke to this morning at 8:00 it had been brought under control with the intervention of the Belize Natural Energy fire crew, Pine Lumber Company and the Spanish Lookout Fire Department.

And then, mercifully, the late morning rains came down. So the threat has subsided, but according to one expert, there are still fires burning.

But there is no present danger to the resorts and guests should be returned tomorrow after staff cleans up the buildup of ash.

Interestingly, the expert we spoke to told us that the forest fire imprint in the Belize River Valley is probably worse than the Mountain Pine Ridge area.

Forest Fires have been wreaking havoc on the lives of people living in manyparts of the country over the last few weeks. Thousands of acres of landhave burned and continue to burn as the dry season continues. One of theeffects of the burning has been a blanket of smoke over most areas. Itpresents some definite health challenges, especially for persons who sufferfrom ailments such as asthma. Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Adrian Coye sayswhile there is little that can be done physically to ease the discomfort,there are some simple measures that can be used to survive in the smokyconditions.

Dr. Adrian Coye – Cardiothoracic surgeon

“It is a very serious public dilemma because we can’t run away from thesmoke; it is enveloping where we live, where we work and such. The best wayto say is to have no smoke at all but we can’t get away from that. If youcan avoid being exposed to it directly especially those people who haverespiratory conditions, asthmatic patients, those with COPD and such theymay have within the smoke the triggers for them to have frequent attacks orsevere attacks so those people may have to try to avoid it or it might bethat they might have to wear some kind of face mask to help them limit theparticles that are going into their airway. It is a difficult problembecause if you can’t avoid working in that area then you are going to beconstantly exposed to the problem, so avoidance is the main thing ifpossible . There is nothing physically that you can do apart from wearing aface mask that will help some patients to not inhale the carbon particlesand helps to filter it out a bit.”

Dr. Adrian Coye works out of the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. TheNational Fire Service is currently running a public service campaign askingpersons in rural communities to be careful when lighting fires and to keepan adequate supply of water readily available to assist themselves shouldtheir property be threatened by a fire until the national fire servicearrives.

“At about 7:00 a.m. Punta Gorda resident Reginald Antonio observed thatsmoke was coming out through the small spaces of a closed aluminium windowof a house next to his home. His concern and helpful telephone call to thePunta Gorda Police and from Police to Punta Gorda Fire Service was timelyas members of the Punta Gorda Fire Service and Police responded immediatelyto the scene of the fire at a building at #121 Front Street in the southernpart of town. The building was unoccupied as the owner Victoria Polonio iscurrently in the USA. Upon a forced entry into the building Fire Servicepersonnel were able to extinguish the fire that had already engulfed a sofaand upon further search of the building, Officer in Charge of the PuntaGorda Fire Service Keniatta Garnett confirmed that three lighted candleswere found in each of the three bedrooms. Caretaker of the house CeliaMartinez was also at the scene and spoke of her disappointment.

Celia Martinez - Caretaker

"Last night I came to check after the guy came to clean the yard. I did notenter the house, I walked around to make sure that everything was okay.Everything seemed to be secured so I am surprised that this morningsomebody went to my house to tell me that there was fire in my aunt’shouse, I don’t understand how this happen but there is evidence they brokein because the gate is broken into.

Paul Mahung - Reporter Did you find that anything was missing?

Celia Martinez - Caretaker

“There are many things that are missing. I notice from outside since Icannot go inside until the fire people and police do their checks; but Inotice from outside that her television is missing, that’s all I can seeright now.”

Paul Mahung - Reporter

From what you can observe is there a break in the building?

Celia Martinez - Caretaker

“Not that I know of. The fire people found the bedroom doors locked andthese bedroom doors are kept opened to air out.”

Paul Mahung - Reporter

I notice there were about three candles found in the building, do you k owanything about the candles.

Celia Martinez - Caretaker

“I have no idea but it definitely is the person who broke in becausecandles can’t light itself.”

Damages include fire destruction of the sofa and internal smoke damage tothe one storey concrete building. I t was evident according to the housecaretaker that some household items were stolen from the building sometimeduring the night hours.”

Thousands of acres of forests have been consumed by wild fires, and much more are at risk before the rains come pouring down. Hot weather conditions are the fuel to the fires that are erupting and spreading across the country. Close to thirty thousand acres of forest have been ravaged in Mountain Pine Ridge; a protected area which also boasts a number of eco-friendly resorts. Over the weekend, News Five’s Isani Cayetano headed to the area where the smoky haze is covering much of the reserve.

The rolling landscape of the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve is a panorama of earth tones stretching as far as the eyes can see in any direction. It’s an infinite terrain covered entirely by evergreen trees established as a protected area in 1944. The expanse is home to a number of natural and man-made wonders including Five Sisters Falls and the ancient city of Caracol. Its geography of roughly a hundred thousand acres as well as its steep elevations makes for an erratic climate.

Today is sweltering. The air is thin and the temperature is easily a hundred degrees. Coupled with the oppressive heat is the sharp smell of burning timber. The pine ridge is on fire and the occasional gust of wind is working in favor of its flames.

George Headley, Managing Director, Bull Run Overseas

“It’s been very tough for the last month. We’ve had lots of fire up this side and we’ve had horrible winds. You can feel a little bit of it now. We’ve had very strong winds and so that’s made fighting fire up here very difficult.”

George Headley is one of few land owners whose property is being affected. His spread is approximately twelve thousand acres. Plumes of smoke blanket the treetops inching toward the heavens above. The brushfire in this area has consumed a great deal of land within the reserve.

George Headley

“In terms of size I’m thinking we’re right at thirty thousand acres between us and the national forest of the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve up here. I’d say in excess of thirty thousand acres.”

That’s the equivalent of almost forty-five square miles. To partially assess the damage the conflagration has caused Headley recently joined a crew of airmen from BATSUB on an aerial reconnaissance mission.

George Headley

“The Caribbean pine up here is very tough with fire and we’re really not going to know how much damage was done probably until a couple of months after the rains come and then we can go around and we can see. Some places it’s obvious we lost trees. Other places it’s obvious we didn’t and then there’s a whole bunch in the middle. We’ll know it in a few months.”

On the ground George and I traverse by Land Rover. What we see are small patches of fire scattered across the hilly estate.

George Headley

“The trick here is to try and get a fire under controlled conditions. You know, in the spring or in the autumn where it’s still damp, there’s not a lot of wind and not a lot of heat [and] we don’t have hundred degree days and so it will burn cool and it will get all the fuel out of there without doing a lot of damage. So you want to try, if you can, to burn every piece of acreage at least once every five years to keep the fuel under control.”

Isani Cayetano

“In the heart of the Mountain Pine Ridge is an ecosystem that’s very much alive with flora. But while there is a wealth of pine trees there is also an abundance of tiger fern, the fuel for most of the wildfires that occur in this part of the woods.”

George Headley

“These are the two primary things that burn in the pine ridge. This is something we call dumb cane which burns quite hot and then this is our real trouble. This is what causes the fire to go from one place to the next. This is tiger bush and it grows, each year it grows more and more fuel under there so if you look in here you can see all of this dead stuff from years and years past. This is about ten years’ worth of tiger bush and when you get this on fire a lot of this will fly up in the air and go with the wind and start the fire. That’s how the fire moves, it’s burning ash and burning pieces from all of this. So that’s what burned.”

The movement of the fire is largely the result of shifting wind patterns. In some cases it managed to skip entire bodies of water.

George Headley

“The fire was hot enough that it actually was able, the wind was able to carry it right over the top of this little lake here. So your viewers can imagine how hard it is to stop the fire when it can move five hundred yards in a shot with this kind of wind.”

There are different theories on how it all began including that of military activity in the area.

George Headley

“We have some concerns that military training out in the east, in the Bald Hills, flares or tracers or even cook fires might [very] well have started that set. For years we had trouble with the British army’s training in April and May but they’ve actually, over the last five years, been extremely good neighbors with us and have worked to put bans on all of that sort of thing. But it’s possible that some of the training a month ago set the fires. It was a BDF exercise up there a month ago [so] it’s possible.”

Regardless of its source the bonfire has presented difficulty for resort owners as wells as forest rangers. Observation posts climbing skyward some sixty feet have been erected to keep an eye on proximity.

Isani Cayetano

“This is one of several watchtowers where officials from the Forestry Department come to get a vantage point and a specific view of where the fire in the Mountain Pine Ridge area has spread.”

Thereafter controlling the blaze requires skill. Instead of quelling the soaring blaze with powerful jets of water fire is fought with fire.

George Headley

“What you’ll do is you’ll get normally downwind of the fire and you’ll take a bulldozer and you’ll go through the bush and you’ll take a torch that drips a mixture of gasoline and diesel along there and you will let the fire run up into the other fire and it will put itself out where it meets in the middle.”

Over the past few weeks Headley and his neighbors at Blancaneaux Lodge and Hidden Valley Resort have invested time and money tackling the problem.

George Headley

“We’ve had five fires in sort of a two, two week stretches that were sort of different. The first one the whole community was able to come together and help each other in various places. The second half it sort of overwhelmed everybody because the lightening from last week started about fourteen fires simultaneously and overwhelmed us. So as a community we were able to come together and save everybody’s businesses from burning. Several of them got very, very close but it had much more of an impact on the resorts because all of them had to evacuate at least once if not twice which caused all sorts of chaos. As you can imagine revenue and guest satisfaction and all of that sort of thing.”

…and the looming threat of wildfire and its devastating impact on the magnificence around has indeed put a damper on ecotourism in Mountain Pine Ridge. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.

Chief Forest Officer Wilber Sabido told Amandala today that approximately 29,000 acres have been burned out in the Mountain Pine Ridge area due to a chain of over 25 forest fires ignited by lightning in a thunderstorm just over a week ago. Those fires, said Sabido, were a threat to Five Sisters Lodge and Blancaneux Lodge.

The Chief Forest Officer said that he had been advised today that the fires are down to ten, but they are keeping a keen eye on the area of Blancaneux, which may still be at risk.

According to Sabido, as many as three times that acreage, or nearly 90,000 acres, have been burned due to forest fires, mostly in the Cayo District.

Belize is almost at the peak of the dry season, and the effect of such forest fires are evident as large expanses of roadside savannah have been burned in stretches than span both the Belize and Cayo Districts.

Almost two years ago, when there was great public outcry from the west over the heavy sedimentation in the Macal River, government technical staff had indicated that excess runoff due to forest fires was a major contributing factor.

Sabido said that knowing the possible adverse effect forest fires, which peak during the dry season, can have in shedding silt and sediment into the river when the rains do come down, they are planning ahead to effect precautionary measures.

He said that the Forest Department, over the last three years, has invested in equipment which it would use to upgrade roads in the area and improve draining to reduce the shedding of silt and sediment into the river.

It is likely there will still be some run-off, but hopefully not as severe as that in 2009, said Sabido.

He is additionally concerned about is the health effect of the smoke on area residents. He said that the smoke from the forest fires blows into San Ignacio and settles over the town in the evenings. People experiencing such problems should be proactive and check with medics, because they may start to experience some health problems, he advised.

Last week we told you about the all-consuming forest fires in Pine Ridge that threatened high end resorts such as the Blancaneux Lodge, Five Sisters and Hidden Valley Inn.

Fortunately it was contained before any of those luxury resorts received any damage other than being clouded in smoke.

The fires were temporarily curtailed by a burst of rain. But there was also a thunderstorm - and the lightning from that also set off new fires.

And so there are presently five major fires - and many smaller ones - presently burning in the Pine Ridge. We went to the fire frontline today with the Forestry Department. Jules Vasquez returned a short time ago.

Jules Vasquez Reporting:

This is the frontline of the forest fire in the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve - except this isn't nature's fire.

Jules Vasquez"If you've ever heard the phrase, 'fighting fire with fire' , this is it as the Forestry Department is setting these huge fires so that this area doesn't become fuel for larger forest fires."

It is a huge and intensely hot fire but part of managing the blaze, this forestry department employee is the one literally fuelling it.

His job is to lead it right here to this creek - where it will naturally terminate - which is bad news for this snake as it swims to the other side for safety

If it doesn't seem to make sense - this fighting fire with fire - it does, Ruiz explains why:

Jules Vasquez"What was the approach? What went into making that decision to burn it at that particular place?"

Domingo Ruiz - Forester, Mountain Pine Ridge"Well there was an anchor point which was the creek. That was a safe point so, we just burnt it to the creek, because it is very dangerous to leave unburnt fuel behind, because you might be busy on the other end of the fire and this fire would just cross, so it's better to avoid - take out all the unburnt material- and then you can concentrate on one side of the fire."

Buy fuel he means the dry, unburnt forest - which is a hazard when there's fire all around.

And that's what we saw today from the vantage point of the area known as skyline it looks like the whole Pine Ridge is on fire, but this is what is known as the small basin - where the fire as big as it seems is not a great worry: no threat to property and the forest needs fire for natural regeneration. This is another vantage of those fires, big but not out of control and not anywhere they don't want it to be.

And to make sure the fire doesn't jump across to an area they are trying to protect, in the forest they don't use fire trucks - they use a bulldozer and a loader - these are what cut the fire trails - that terminate the fires.

Domingo Ruiz is in charge of managing multiple fires across the hundred thousand acre Pine Ridge Forest Reserve. The Forest Department has it sectioned off into 48 compartments and sub-compartments accessed by 398 miles of roads and trails.

He zips around those almost 400 miles of road that he knows like the back of his hand on an ATV - constantly monitoring the larger fires

Marcello Windsor - Deputy Chief Forest Officer"As we regularly seen today, there are five different fires. Some of them actually joined, becoming larger fires, and some of these - we've actually had some scheduled prescribed burns to be carried out. Unfortunately, those prescribed burns did not happen when we had the right windows of opportunity, but they're happening now and the results so far, as we have actually analyzed, are very good."

The big fires come in 5 year cycles and so far 2011 is fairly fierce:

Wilbur Sabido - Chief Forest Officer"It is one of the more severe ones since the past five years. If you recall, in 2006 we had a similar fire season where we had severe fires. In that particular area, if I recall correctly, over 50% of the Mountain Pine Ridge burnt. In this particular instance, we're estimating about 29,000 - 30, 000 acres - burnt already."

Jules Vasquez"Which represents about what percentage?"

Wilbur Sabido"Which represents about a third of the Mountain Pine Ride. While we may have fires that are occurring in the Mountain Pine Ridge that we may strategically choose not to intervene and try to control them - because we feel that because of the management objectives that we have for that particular area - the fire is best left to continue it's natural course. But at the same time, there are fires which we cannot control, but we try to suppress and contain. But then there are fires that we can attack directly, and because they are in critical and sensitive areas, we do prioritize and center our efforts, both human and machinery- wise, to try and contain those fires and put them out."

But some say they haven't been vigilant enough:

Jules Vasquez"How do you respond to a criticism that in fact, you all haven't been doing interventions - enough underbrush burning - in the non- dry season, and that has led to a particularly ferocious fire season."

Marcello Windsor"Well, it all depends on your point of view. As I said, we had scheduled prescribed burns to be carry out; we didn't carry them out on a timely basis, but this opportunity has availed itself."

But most folks think that where there is smoke - and that's everywhere in Pine Ridge - there's fire:

Marcello Windsor"To people who perhaps don't know about fires or don't have this appreciation of fires, it might be a little frightening, I should say. and a visitor to the Mountain Pine Ridge, when they see smoke all over the place, you get frightened or something, and then - maybe that's the reason why this comment came by."

And while there are comments, Ruiz ays they have their priorities lined up:

Domingo Ruiz"Well we have, I would say, about 80% control. I wouldn't say full control of the fires because it looked dormant for a while, but in the afternoon when the humidity really goes low and the temperatures rise, fire spreads from different areas. Then again, you have to prioritize all over because you might have one the north- end side and another one on the east. So you have to prioritize what to do next."

And join us again tomorrow night for part 2 of that story, when we'll look deeper in the forest fires of 2011 and ask the forest department what went wrong that made Blancaneux almost burn.

Last night we took you to the frontline of the forest fires in the Mountain Pine Ridge Area.

Tonight, in the second part of our story, we'll take a more circumspect approach - as we study the fire phenomenon, particularly as it affected some upscale resorts a few weeks ago.

Jules Vasquez Reporting
We begin our story at the place called Skyline one of the highest points in the Pine ridge which - with the widespread fires - looks almost as if it is in the clouds:….

Much of the Pine Ridge is shrouded in smoke - and indeed about a third of the forest has already burnt or is burning. These are the men who watch it - a crew of 30 foresters who are deployed to different areas in the burning forest. Their days and nights coloured in a haze of smoke and ash. But they don't fight the fires as much as they manage them.

Wilbur Sabido - Chief Forest Officer"Over the past two weeks what we recognize is that the lightning storm that passes through the Cayo District actually started majority of our fires, but again fire being a natural phenomenon and especially in pine ecosystems. There seems to be a very close intertwines relationship between fire and these types of ecosystems."

Marcello Windsor - Deputy Chief Forest Officer"That is true and it does maintain a healthy pine forest ecosystem, so it's part of the system itself. With fires what we do is that we have a management approach to those. We use them to carry out fillings, we use them to remove all the shrubs competing vegetation and whilst you used them for wildlife habitat enhancement as well."

But for the upscale Lodges in the Pine Ridge - habitat destruction is what the faced 10 days ago when fire was at their front door.

Wilbur Sabido - Chief Forest Officer"Actually we have an enclave that is nestled in the middle within the mountain pine ridge forest reserve and that enclave also contains resorts and lodges and one of our key priorities if fire threatens those properties is to place our priorities to try and contain and suppress fires in those particular areas."

Marcello Windsor - Deputy Chief Forest Officer"What happen was that there were some prescribe burns being carried out by our neighbors in the northern part of the reserve and because of the thunder storm system that came by week before last - unfortunately the situation got out of control and we had bigger fires than we had anticipated. We had a number of events. We had the number 4 and number 5 fires that actually amalgamated or become one very large fire. we had that fire coming from the northern property of the reserve and then we had this one that actually jump into the national park itself and they were all trying to engulf Blancaneux Lodge, but consistently we did suppress them and of course with the efforts of everyone who assisted we brought it under control. It looks very alarming because of the enormity of things."

Domingo Ruiz - Forester, Mountain Pine Ridge"The problem is communication - if they could communicate immediately then I would move and deal with that situation, so many of times its the communication failure."

Jules Vasquez"So in that case when they have the most active threat you all were not direct communication?"

Domingo Ruiz - Forester, Mountain Pine Ridge"We were not in direct communication. Afterwards I used a radio from the other company and so we had communication and we respond to every time they make a call."

But right now there is no threat to those resorts, it's just burning bush and these fire trails that look like roads - these are what keep it from spreading - still, sometimes, it jumps those trails:

Jules Vasquez"What make a fire jump?"

Domingo Ruiz - Forester, Mountain Pine Ridge"Well most of all its the wind. The wind is one of the variables that we cannot predict, it changes so quickly, sometimes it changes for 5 minutes to get that fire across your line and then it cools off, then we have to plan all over again how to deal with that head of fire. Yes there are some fires that are very ferocious but when you understand fire management and deal with fires on a yearly basis who know exactly what to expect of that fire, so in order not to panic - you study fire behavior and you plan ahead of the fires."

And planning ahead while making a fire-fight in real time is what they've been trying to do:

Wilbur Sabido - Chief Forest Officer"So by and large I wish to say that we are doing what we can and I think we are doing quite a good job added not putting out all the fires but we are containing them where we feel they should be contained and leaving fires to continuing burning where they need to burn."

Chief Forest Officer Sabido says that countrywide, as many as 150,000 acres may burn this dry season….

The smoke from forest fires has been persistent for weeks and continues to drift from the west. It’s a normal occurrence in the dry season, but the inferno raging in the Cayo District has been the worst in recent years. We reported earlier this week on some health risks, particularly for students exposed to the smoke and the smell during school hours. And today’s Healthy Living goes into further detail with two specialists on how the smoke can affect residents, especially those with respiratory problems.

Marleni Cuellar, Reporting

February to mid-June is the unofficial fire season in Belize. According to the Forest Department, the fires this year have doubled last year’s and exceeded previously recorded numbers. Although the fires happen annually, the health implications became highlighted when due to wind patterns the smoke descended on Belize City for a day. We checked in with two specialists to find out more about what the effects on our health.

Victor Rosado

Dr. Victor Rosado, Pediatrician

“We are assuming that we are having especially in Belize city is from forest fires, a few years ago it was from the garbage dump and the smoke form the garbage dump defiantly poses additional risks cause you have added carcinogens in the air in along with the sticks and metals being burned. In terms of long terms risks that is what you’d look for, are there any carcinogens in the air. In terms of carbon monoxides from forest fires I think that poses more a short term risk. Respiratory tract infections, bronchitis, asthma attacks, pink eye: conjunctivitis, sinusitis. Those are more acute infections.”

Dr. Fernando Cuellar, Internist/Intensivist

“It will affect your nostrils, your nose causing irritation there, a sensation of stuffiness and wanting to sneeze and of course the mouth the throat it can lead to different sensation of irritation and coughing and so forth when it comes to the upper airwaves.”

Essentially the people who are most vulnerable would be those with respiratory illnesses.

Dr. Victor Rosado

“This poses a risk for people who have chronic respiratory illness especially children, the size of their airways children and elderly. We’re talking about asthma, bronchitis, emphysema; those are patients would definitely have higher risk of having an attack.”

Dr Rosado, emphasizes that parents of asthmatics should have a proper “asthma action plan”.

Dr. Victor Rosado

“These parents should know what to do where to access care in terms of a crisis and obviously you should make sure that you have enough medication that your asthma pump is working that you have access to an emergency room that you are aware that the risks of having an attack on these days.”

As for non-asthmatics, it is still important to stay away from irritants.

Fernando Cuellar

Dr. Fernando Cuellar

“Well try to stay indoors as much as possible. To get out of the outside and perhaps be in air conditioned area as much as they can. The more you’re exposed to it the worse for you. It’s not just a short term thing. We hope that the winds shift and that you can contain it as much as possible.”

If you must be outdoors in the smoke for a prolonged period of time, it is advisable to use a mask and sunglasses as a means of protection. With the rainy season approaching, the issue of forest fires will soon become passé. But, as Dr Rosado explains, air quality should be a year round issue of importance.

Dr. Victor Rosado

“I think that rather than going down there we need to take a good luck at our city and how it has grown in the past twenty years, have we created any new parks, have we planted any new trees, do we have enough green areas, how many new areas have introduce in the city. Do we need to check the exhaust pipes of these big diesel buses? I think subjectively we all agree that the quality of the air has been decreasing but for us to take those actions, definitely we’d need to asses it objectively.”